William a



@uiten taten @anni f @ffice WILLIAM A. LIGHTHALL, 0F NEW YORK, N. Y.

Letters Patent No. 75,173, dated March 8, 1868.

@te Simula :stemt tu in there @mais 33mm init mating partei tige' stmt.

TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONOERN:

Be it. known that I, WILLIAM A. LiGHTnALL, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain newand useful Improvements in Securing the Tubes of Surface-Condensers for Steam-Engines; and

I dohereby declare that the following is a full and exact'des'cription of' the same,reference beinghad to the;v

accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference markedthercomin which- Figure 1 is a perspective view of the tube, showing the slotted apertures in the end of the same, and Figure 2 is a similar view, showing the lock or fastening made by setting out the slits on the tube.

In surface-condensers, which have the tubes held in place in the tube-heads of the :condenser by p'aekings of wood, paper, or other material, to keep them tight and from leakage, whenV no follower or other analogous means are used to restrain thetubes from moving from position, it is found, in practice, that they are subjected to a movement in the heads, which sometimes takes some of them out of one of the heads of the condenser to which they are attached. This movement is technically termed crawling, but the cause that produces this movement i's as yet unaccounted for, In somecases the tubes crawl with the current of cooling water passing through them, and in other cases against the current. If but a few of them move ont ofthe heads, the efficiency ofthe condenser is materially aiiected, and if many of them do so, its efficiency is entirely destroyed.

To remedy and overcome this defect is the object and purpose of my invention, which consists in making a longitudinal slit in each end of the tube for 'a'short distance, say one-eighth of an inch, and then cross-cutting such slit at the bottom end with another slit that will make in appearance what is technically termed a bayonet joint; the lips of the slit thus made being turned outward, slightly, after the tube is put to place in the tube-head, and properly secured against leakage by packing, so as to hold the tube securely from any longitudinal movement in the head-sheet, and so as to prevent the crawling before named.

A is the condenser-tube, B the longitudinal slit, and C the cross-cut slit. As shown in iig. 1, the tube is prepared to be put to place in the tube'sheet of the condenser, and in tig. 2 the tube is shown with the lips expanded and set out after being properly secured to place in the tube-sheet, by the proper packing, as before named. p

In case the tubes require to be removed from the condenser for any cause, the lips ofthe slits, before named, can be readily set back to place by a pair of pincers or nipper's, and can then be reiinserted in place, and be secured as at rst. V

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

Making the slotted apertures in the ends of the tubes of surface-condensers for steam-engines in the manner and for the purposes set forth.

WM. A. LIGHTHALL.

Witnesses:

FarmersA S. Low, F. P. BUDDEN. 

